<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Aziraphale and the Armorer by Quannon</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26687206">Aziraphale and the Armorer</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quannon/pseuds/Quannon'>Quannon</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Good Omens Character Studies [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman &amp; Terry Pratchett</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>philosphical</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 03:55:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,539</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26687206</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quannon/pseuds/Quannon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What Aziraphale thought about after being discorporated in Episode 4.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aziraphale &amp; Crowley (Good Omens), Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Good Omens Character Studies [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1564321</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Aziraphale and the Armorer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Caution:  No romance; no sex.  There is no active violence, but there is reference to the War in Heaven, Falling, Armageddon, biblical violence like the Ark, etc, the American Civil War, and the tragedy of the poet Longfellow’s wife’s death.  There is cannon typical angst about Aziraphale’s place in the scheme of things.  Just Aziraphale being Aziraphale really.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aziraphale had lived for 6000ish years since time began.  And an unknown amount of years before time began which was a conundrum that he usually decided not to think about regardless of how it felt.  But because he had lived all those years, his awareness of time passing was sometimes very fluid.  He remembered experiencing things that he knew took a long time (the star building phase of the universe for example) seemingly passing in the blink of an eye.  Of course, the Lord could have willed all of it into existence, but She had given the task to her Angels and it took a bit longer.  He knew that.  But he remembered it as passing very quickly from concept to drawings to construction to installation.  He hadn’t himself done any of that; he had been in more of a support role bringing ambrosia to the star makers or retrieving plans from the office.  His job was yet to come.  But he had been there, through it all, all the same.  Then there were things that he knew had taken only a short amount of time (performance reviews with Gabriel as another example) that felt as though they had lasted an eternity.  So, he was not surprised that the time in transit from when he realized the circle had been activated and he said, “Oh fuck!” to the time he would appear in Heaven was apparently taking much longer than usual.  “Time dilation” all the modern science fiction writers called it.</p><p>He wasn’t surprised, but it did occur to him that possibly She’d had enough of him questioning The Great Plan.  Possibly it really was taking a little longer because this time he wasn’t going to Heaven’s Receiving Room.</p><p>That led to a quick mental review of the last few weeks.  There had not been a lot to do until he and Crowley had definitely confirmed at Warlock’s birthday party that he wasn’t the Anti-Christ.  After that, it was all about finding the Child and trying to thwart Armageddon. He hadn’t, at great emotional cost, betrayed anything to the Opposition even if it was just Crowley.  He didn’t want to remember watching him leave at the bandstand.  He had remained loyal to his side; to Gabriel’s expectation; to the Great Plan.  He regretted that now.  If he’d only told Crowley, Armageddon might yet be averted.  Or they might even be averting it together!</p><p>Aziraphale still couldn’t believe that the Lord wanted Her creation essentially smote out of existence.  She had always said to be kind.  Hadn’t that been what he’d told Crowley at the Crucifixion?  That His message had been to be kind to each other?  Why would She send her Son with a message that wasn’t what She wanted?  Gabriel had said that the Metatron had said that it was part of the Great Plan.  Angels didn’t have to understand; they had to obey.</p><p>Of course, there had been the Ark incident, and Sodom and Gomorrah, and the whole Plagues thing in Egypt.  But, now that he thought about it, those commands had come through the Metatron and Gabriel as coming from the Great Plan.  She hadn’t sent her Son for those.  That didn’t mean they weren’t in the Great Plan though.  And he knew She had kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden.  He’d been there for that.  And he’d given them his sword which She’d only asked him about once.  Maybe this was just a long time coming from that incident.  </p><p>He shied away from that thought.  Not because he’d given the sword to Adam, but because he’d lied about it to Her.  That was particularly silly since She knew everything.  She’d given him a good long time to repent about that and he still wasn’t sorry about the sword, only the bad lie.  Maybe that was it.</p><p>But She had always said to be kind, even during the War.  Aziraphale remembered.  The horrible battles, the screams of the injured and dying Angels, the Falling.  He did not remember Her ever saying they were the Opposition.  That would have made them not Hers and how could something She had made not be Hers?  Another conundrum.  She had only said that they had to leave Heaven.  Gabriel had said that the Falling and what followed were part of Her Great Plan.  Like the stars.  In this endless ascension, Aziraphale wondered what the Great Plan actually said.</p><p>His thoughts wandered back a few weeks to happier times when he believed Armageddon could be averted.  He had participated in Christmas in July.  Crazy thing humans had come up with.  He supposed that it was due to increased communication between civilizations in the north and south hemispheres.  Christmas traditions can’t be winter in both places on the chosen celebratory day.  And then there’s the commercial aspect.  Don’t go a whole year between commercial capitalization if a new holiday doing the same thing can be drummed up at the sixth month mark.  He smiled.  Whatever the reason, it was fun to participate with those that actually gave thought to the Birth of Joshua and what that might have meant.</p><p>Not all Christmastides were fun of course.  He drifted to thoughts of his time in the Americas during the War in the 1860s.  It was an awful time there.  It brought back too many memories of another War that he had fought in himself.  Too many casualties: physical, mental, and familial.  He had spent December 1863 in the middle of a dreadful Civil War with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who still mourned the death of his wife two years earlier and carried the scars of his futile attempt to save her.  For some reason, Aziraphale’s charge had been to comfort this man by simply being close to him this Christmas.</p><p>Longfellow had written in his journal:</p><p>I heard the bells on Christmas day<br/>
Their old familiar carols play,<br/>
And wild and sweet the words repeat<br/>
Of peace on earth, good will to men.</p><p>I thought how, as the day had come,<br/>
The belfries of all Christendom<br/>
Had rolled along th'unbroken song<br/>
Of peace on earth, good will to men.</p><p>Aziraphale thought of all the things he personally knew about His Mother.  She had always said to be kind; that never wavered.  But, like Longfellow, if Armageddon is Her Will, then:</p><p>And in despair I bowed my head:<br/>
'There is no peace on earth, ' I said<br/>
'For hate is strong, and mocks the song<br/>
Of peace on earth, good will to men.'</p><p>But could that really be Her Will?  Why had he not fallen?  He had given a sword to Adam to defend Eve from the wild animals he knew were waiting outside the Gates of Eden.  He had known from personal experience that the sword literally and figuratively cut both ways for defense and offence.  He, Aziraphale, had given Adam the first weapon of war but he had not fallen.</p><p>Suddenly, Aziraphale popped into the Heavenly Reception Room.  The stark white fuzziness of his surroundings disoriented him and drew him back from his thoughts.  Anxiety rushed through his body … except that he didn’t have a body … but the feeling flooded him anyway.  He could discern nothing.</p><p>And then from behind him there was ping, like a very tiny bell, causing him to turn.  Then he heard, “You, you’re late!”</p><p>Aziraphale struggled to reply, “Um, I, ah, Actually I didn’t mean to here, um, yet.  Still sorting things out … on Earth.”  He started to walk toward the Quartermaster whom he could see had a uniform for him.</p><p>“Aziraphale, isn’t it?  Principality, Angel of the Eastern Gate.  Your whole platoon is waiting for you.”  Then he thrust the uniform into Aziraphale’s hands.  The Armorer looked down at his paperwork searching for ‘Aziraphale’. “Aziraphale, Aziraphale.  Why is that name so familiar?  Hang on.  Aziraphale.  You were issued with …”</p><p>“A flaming sword.  I know.  It’s not my fault.  She was having a very bad day … “</p><p>The Armorer cut in, “You were issued with a body.  Where is it?”</p><p>“I’m afraid I hadn’t actually prepared to step into the transportation portal, you see.  And the body discorporated.”</p><p>“Discorporated?”</p><p>“It was 6000 years old.”</p><p>“I count them all out and I count them all in again.  And then you turn up.  Late for Armageddon.  No flaming sword.  Not even a body!  You pathetic excuse for an angel!”</p><p>Aziraphale is shocked for moment.  A time dilation again where everything he thought about from his ascension culminated with the ping of the uniform buttons being the first thing he heard as he materialized in Heaven.  The ping of a bell.  The rest of the poem ran through his thoughts:</p><p>Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:<br/>
'God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;<br/>
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,<br/>
With peace on earth, good will to men.'</p><p>Till, ringing, singing on its way,<br/>
The world revolved from night to day<br/>
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,<br/>
Of peace on earth, good will to men.</p><p>Aziraphale came to a decision.  He knew, he knew what She wanted him to do.  </p><p>“Well, I suppose I am really.  I mean … I have no intention of fighting in any war.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I want to write end notes but nothing sounds right.  In the end, I think any time we can be kinder to each other, it is a good thing.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>